I was so surprised when I saw children in Guatemala playing Ring Around a Rosie. I knew the games origins are supposed to be from Europe and the Europeans certainly traveled to Central American at the same time they traveled to North America, but none the less my reaction was surprise, followed by a big grin. There is something so amusing about children. Some are so focused on the game they look toward the leader (off page of the painting) attentively, while others stare at their feet, likely watching a passing bug, and some chatted with their best friend totally ignoring any instructions they may have been given. I watched the organizers of the game attempting to get the game started for at least five minutes. It was a very large group of about two dozen children. By the time I refocused on the painting demo that was going on by our workshop instructor he had made lots of progress, but the game was still at a standstill.

These little moments of everyday life speak to me whether here in the United States or when traveling abroad. This is why I call my art Exploring Cultures through Color. I somehow feel compelled to share these little moments with you.

Another of my paintings with children at play is Day at the Fountain, inspired by a trip to Charleston, South Carolina.

This is so precious, and so very well painted, April! Your work is so superb, as an example to other artists of what is truly possible to achieve! I would love to see photos of your Guatemala trip too!

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Favorite Quotes

"Time spent in a painting is very much like going there again on vacation. And when the painting is done, I have seen every detail and nuance so thoroughly, that a glance at the completed work is sufficient for a short visit." (John Burk)

"The secret of great art - to rob the moment of its impermanence." (Ivan Lissner)

"If you hear a voice within you say you cannot paint , then by all means paint and that voice will be silenced." (Vincent van Gogh)

"Rejection leads to persistence, and persistence is what it is all about." (Maria Scrivan)

"Many of life' failures are people who did not realize how close they were to success when they gave up." (Thomas A. Edison)

"The greater danger for most of us lies not in setting our aim too high and falling short; but in setting our aim too low, and achieving our mark." (Michelangelo)

"When I was 5 years old, my mother always told me that happiness was the key to life. When I went to school, they asked me what I wanted to be when I grew up. I wrote down "happy". They told me I didn't understand the assignment. I told them they didn't understand life." (John Lennon)

“Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry, and narrow-mindedness, ... Broad, wholesome, charitable views of men and things cannot be acquired by vegetating in one little corner of the earth all one's lifetime.” (Mark Twain, The Innocents Abroad/Roughing It)

“All colors are the friends of their neighbors and the lovers of their opposites.” (Marc Chagall)